The Cornelius Vanderbilt II House was a large mansion built in 1883 at 1 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City. It occupied the frontage along the west side of Fifth Avenue from West 57th Street up to West 58th Street at Grand Army Plaza. The home was sold in 1926 and demolished to make way for the Bergdorf Goodman department store. Design and history The Châteauesque mansion, occupying the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and West 57th Street, was constructed in 1883 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the eldest grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, founder of the family fortune. The ground level contained a drawing room, a dining room (which doubled as the art gallery), and a reception room. The second floor housed a salon, a music room, and a conservatory; the family bedrooms were on the remaining floors. Cornelius, feeling that others were trying to outdo his house, bought all of the property on the Fifth Avenue block. He then hired George B. Post and Richard Morris Hunt to construct a much larger mansion, filling the entire block front. The interiors were done by the French design firm of Jules Allard and Sons, with many pieces in the house being imported from Europe. The house was six stories tall, not including the basement, and also had a stable and a private garden next door. The first floor featured a five-story Caen stone entrance hall leading to the library, a small salon, a grand salon, a watercolor room, a two-story ballroom, and a two-story dining room that doubled as an art gallery. Also on the first floor were a two-story Moorish-inspired smoking room, a den, an office, a breakfast room, and a pantry. On the second floor were Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedroom, boudoir, bath, closet, and dressing room. Mr. Vanderbilt's bedroom was also on the second floor, as well as his bathroom, dressing room, closet, and private study. The mansion was, and remains, the largest private residence ever built in New York City. Thirteen years after moving into his new home (he also lived at The Breakers, a 125,000 sq. ft. summer "cottage" in Newport, Rhode Island), Cornelius suffered a stroke that left him confined to a wheelchair for the remaining three years of his life. In his will, he left his wife Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt a $7,000,000 trust fund and the use of 1 West 57th Street and The